Kidnap victims talk to police as reports allege abuse

Amanda Berry, right, hugs her sister, Beth Serrano, after being reunited Monday in a Cleveland hospital. Berry and two other women were found in a house near downtown Cleveland Monday after being missing for about a decade.

Police arrested three brothers - Ariel Castro, 52, the owner of the house and a former Cleveland school bus driver; Pedro Castro, 54; and Onil Castro, 50 - in connection with the alleged abductions.

Cleveland police Sgt. Sammy Morris said Tuesday that local police had contact with Ariel Castro on at least two occasions during the time the women were missing. Both contacts were unrelated to reports about the missing women.

Local investigators and federal agents continued to search the house Tuesday, a task that was expected to take a few days.

Interviews begin

Morris said investigators were only beginning to interview the victims Tuesday.

All three suspects were being held on suspicion of rape and kidnapping, but Morris said details of the abuse and how the victims were held were not yet known. Morris also said authorities were seeking to learn whether the women were held at the same home or moved to other locations during their captivity.

"Right now, we want to let them spend some time with their families and take this process very, very slowly and respectful for their families and the young girls' needs," police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said.

Prior calls to police

Neighbors and police sources hinted at a life of horror for the women at the hands of captors for almost 10 years.

Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.

Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to the side of the house and then left," he said.

Neighbors also said they would see Castro sometimes walking a little girl to a neighborhood playground.

'I got bad vibes'

Lugo said he, his family and neighbors called police three times between 2011 and 2012.

In one instance, Lugo said about two years ago his sister told him she heard a woman pounding on a window at Castro's home.When his sister looked up, she saw a woman and a baby standing in a window half covered with a wooden plank. His sister told him, and Lugo called the police.